Founders vs the board: At FundsIndia, not all was mutual

Exits, firings, court petitions, conflicted employees...and an almost founder-less board. A once-leader FundsIndia, which should've been a tech disruptor, instead got disrupted

With over 1.1 million customers and over $750 million in assets under management, FundsIndia was a true fintech pioneer in pole position. It had customers, revenue and investors. But its founders were ousted in June

This can be chalked up to events that unfolded over the last two years. FundsIndia brought in senior tech executives like Krish Seshadri from Facebook. But one of the co-founders was subsequently removed

This drew battle-lines between those loyal to the founders and those who reported to Seshadri. It resulted in seven people being laid off, three of whom filed legal notices

The company is now fast running out of capital and an exit seems to be an uphill task

On 15 June, an email from Srikanth Meenakshi, co-founder, and chief operating officer of FundsIndia, went out to the 330 employees at the online mutual funds distribution company. It confirmed a rumour that had been doing the rounds for a week. That the board was asking Meenakshi to leave the company. The company he and his co-founder, CR Chandrasekar, founded 10 years ago.

“Dear all, I wish to bring to your notice that the board members of our company (Wealth India Financial Services Pvt Ltd) are trying to take control of the company, much to the detriment of founders, employees, and customers,” Meenakshi wrote.

AUTHOR

Arundhati Ramanathan

Arundhati is Bengaluru-based. She is interested in how people use money in the digital age and how new economies will take shape based on that interaction. She has spent over 10 years reporting and writing on various subjects. Previous stints were at Mint, Outlook Business and Reuters.

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